How I’m Dealing with a Blogging Rut

4 June, 2017

Ah, blogging. I have a massive love/hate relationship with you. I guess it’s like all relationships in that it’s not all plain sailing. When I’m on a roll and feeling super productive and like ‘yep, you got this’ I love it. When I’ve got heaps of new Insta posts, am taking part in lots of blogger Twitter chats and have a bank of content lined up, it’s an absolute babe. But then sometimes (and annoyingly more often than not at the moment), that’s not the case. I forget to take photos. I feel uninspired and just a bit meh about what I’m going to write. And the excuses as to why not to do things come so much easier than the words I want to write.

I’ve been thinking why this might be the case and I have a few ideas as to why. I guess it’s partly to do with realising what I want my blog to be. At the moment, I’m trying to be all things to all people. I’m a big fan of a lot of lifestyle bloggers and see them posting such varied content, and I guess I feel that I need to be posting similar things in order to actually be a ‘lifestyle blogger’. But, what I’m finding is that, that great range of content, talking about travel, clothes, food, make-up etc. just doesn’t seem to flow that easily for me. Where I’ve made a conscious decision to spend more money on travel, it’s meant that having an up to date wardrobe has been put on the back burner. The spontaneous ‘I’m going to buy all of the new products that Boots has on offer’ trips happen less often.

So…where’s this ramble of thoughts heading?

The need to feel like I need to compete with other lifestyle bloggers and put out a massive range of content is what’s making me fall out of love with my blog. I’m not sure why I felt the need to compete. Blogging is such a diverse industry that there’s no right or wrong content. Maybe ‘competing’ is the wrong word. I guess rather than competing, I was aspiring to be like those lifestyle blogs but for now, I don’t feel that it’s achievable for me. So I’ve taken a step back and thought about what do I like writing about, and what gives me lots of content opportunities. For now, those two things are travelling and eating. If you know me, talking about holidays and food are two of my favourite topics on a regular basis. That, and crap reality TV. But I’m not planning on becoming the next Perez Hilton, so food and travel it is! I’ll still write about make-up and clothes, but if I don’t have content for posts of that nature, I’m not going to beat myself up about it. I want to enjoy my blog, not feel lack-lustre and have it feel like a chore.

I’m also potentially about to try my hand out at vlogging. I’m excited and terrified about this in equal parts! I just ordered myself a new camera (the Panasonic Lumix GX-80 if you’re interested) and am hoping to do some travel vlogs. Whether these will be any good is anyone’s guess. But even if I decide that vlogging isn’t for me, I’m excited to have a new camera so that I can get some great shots for my blog.

Anyway, let’s see how long this feeling of ‘go get ’em’ lasts. But I’m hoping that a bit more direction and some more expensive kit will help. Although who am I kidding? I’ve got a lot of nice gym clothes and probably go about once a month. Watch this space….

Thanks for putting up with this post, it’s a massive stream of consciousness, but it’s helped me at least! How do you get out of blogging ruts?